Rare Birds at Rock & Roll Hotel: Jonathan Wilson

The lights are lowered and the projection behind the band becomes visible. A digitally animated throne room is now visible. Mannequin-like avatars dance in slow motion, a swan sits atop a watermelon and at the far end of the room, Jonathan Wilson sits in a peacock wicker chair, barefoot and decked out in white.

“I want you to see this shit,” the real Wilson says, looking at the audience. “So, go ahead and take your molly now.” He means it in jest, I think.

It’s Thursday, March 8 at Rock & Roll Hotel. Singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson is touring his latest record, Rare Birds, which came out March 2. The animation, (by Clara Luzian), is aseptic and stands in contrast to the scruff and middle part hairstyles of the band. Together they look incongruous, but it makes sense as the show goes on.

Wilson’s music bears associations with the music of Laurel Canyon, the home of numerous musicians like Frank Zappa, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. It’s Americana, guitar heavy and often veers psychedelic.

Rare Birds is Wilson’s third record and he was able to pull a number of big names to feature on the record, including Lana Del Rey. The work also includes New Age music legend Laraaji, whose credits include not only a Brian Eno collaboration, but also a nickname as the “Brian Eno of Laughter.”

Laraaji, whom the band refers to affectionately as “Le Raj,” opened for Wilson at the show and joined the band for the track, “Loving You,” the story of which Wilson shared at the show. The tale is also retold on Genius, but it’s a song which the two made almost as if by chance in the studio. Wilson showed Laraaji a simple drum pattern he made, Laraaji chanted over it and then they had a song and the genesis of a new record.

Laraaji’s inscrutable, ethereal chanting along with the driving insistence of the drum machine holds the song together; however, for the live show, the part of the drum machine was played by Wilson’s drummer, who might look like a younger brother to the lead man– still scruffy and long-haired, but more wiry.

The percussionist’s Jaki Liebezeit-like precision held the song together, as well as on other driving tracks like “Over the Midnight,” but he could solo too. His extended solo visibly pained him, but it stood out, even against the psychedelic, virtuosic solos of his bandmates, including Wilson’s own solos on both guitar and piano.

On “There’s a Light,” Wilson exhibited some of his pop melody chops and sings: “There’s a light/ A light that’s over me/ And all my friends and family would agree/ Hey look! it’s over you/ It’s shining brighter still/ Hey man it’s overdue.”

The lyrics sound self-aggrandizing, but it’s hard to say that he’s wrong. He speaks with the swagger of someone who’s been everywhere and seen most anything. He killed it at Rock & Roll Hotel, on both guitar and piano and he’s written a tremendous record, (not to mention his other two and his work on Father John Misty’s Grammy-nominated Pure Comedy, as well as FJM’s other records.)

Michael Loria is a writer who focuses on art and music. For On Tap, his work includes a cover story on the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda, for the December 2017 print edition, and features like his interviews with Carla Bruni and with Thievery Corporation. Collectively, he's penned more than 40 clips for the magazine.